Reliance Industries has announced plans of expanding its 33 million tpa Jamnagar petroleum refinery in Gujarat. The company plans to add a third train (set of crude distillation units) to ramp up capacity to 60 million tpa (or 1.2 million bpd) . The investment outlay is likely to be in the region of Rs.15,000 crore. The refinery expansion would be implemented by 2009.

Reliance is understood to be in talks with Bechtel, the EPC contractor of the refinery when it was constructed in the late 1990s.

The Jamnagar refinery is the world's largest standalone refinery and has the ability to refine varied types of crude -- from light (18 degree API) to heavy (45 degree API), and from sweet (0 per cent sulphur) to heavy (up to 4.5 per cent sulphur).

Post expansion, the Jamnagar refinery would not only continue to be the world's largest single-location refinery, but Reliance Industries would also become the biggest petroleum refiner in India, surpassing Indian Oil Corporation that currently has refining capacity of 40-odd million tpa from seven refineries (excluding subsidiaries).

Before embarking on the refinery expansion, Reliance has plans to set up 5,849 petroleum retail outlets.

Currently, the Jamnagar refinery produces 11 million tonnes per year of diesel, 4 million tonnes of naphtha and petrol each, among other products.

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Reliance gets approval for product pipelines (28-Jan-05)